Free Tainted Love by Cate Lockhart Page B

fine.
    He replied just as quickly.
    Would you like me to come by your office? Or would you rather go somewhere more private?
    Abbi was ashamed to admit it but she immediately began to feel horny just at the thought of what Taylor was hinting at. Private meant a room – either in a hotel or his place. As much as she would have liked to, she text him back with a heavy heart.
    The shop will be fine. I’ll see you in the morning.
    Thinking that was the end of the messages she was midway through putting the phone away when it pinged again.
    Chicken.
    Abbi smiled. She wasn’t being a coward, she was being faithful to Ben – the man she had promised to marry. She had always said she would never cheat on him and at the time she had meant it. But was flirting actually cheating? She deleted the messages between Taylor and herself and put her phone in her pocket before trudging up the steps. She wasn’t necessarily trying to keep the texts from Ben, but she had a feeling he wouldn’t like them if he read them. Can you blame him?
    Abbi walked into the dark apartment. Buddy came tearing down the hall and slid on the hardwood floor, straight into her shins. ‘Hey, Buddy!’ She bent over and petted him. ‘I’m on to you, you little squirt. I’m not picking you up right now.’ She looked around her feet and miraculously the floor was dry.
    ‘Hi, Ben! I’m home,’ she called. She noticed an open beer can on the worktop and a couple more in a plastic bag on the floor. That was strange. Ben hardly ever drank during the week. He never knew when he was going to get called in. She set the food on the counter and saw his phone on the kitchen table flashing with messages. She picked it up and saw the messages were from her, so he had evidently not got them.
    ‘Where’s Daddy?’ she asked Buddy who was still bouncing around her feet. She turned on the hallway light and went down to the bedroom. Opening the door, she heard the fan on they always used for white noise and heard snoring coming from the darkened room. Looking at the clock on the bed cabinet, she saw that it was 6:30pm. Ben was out cold. At least that meant she wouldn’t have to answer any questions about Taylor.
    She felt a little put out that since Ben had got home early, he had chosen to get drunk instead of spending valuable time with her. Is this what he was going to expect of her for the rest of her life? Whenever he got some time off work unexpectedly, she was supposed to always be readily available for him? If she wasn’t he would come home sulk, drown his sorrows in beer, and go to bed.
    Granted, he had wanted to spend some of the afternoon with her but she wasn’t a clairvoyant – how was she supposed to know he’d be free? If he had told her, there would have been no question of her choosing to have lunch with Taylor over Ben. So she wasn’t going to feel guilty about it. Not even a little bit. In fact, she thought he was being childish.
    Well, whatever. She’d had a long somewhat pleasant day and she wasn’t going to let this spoil it. She poured herself a large glass of wine and snuck quietly into the bedroom, grabbed her pyjamas then went to the bathroom and ran a bath. She dumped in some heavenly smelling lavender oil beads and lit some candles. Stripping naked she climbed into the bath and sat in the semi-darkness, drinking her wine and thinking about her day. The whole business with Uncle Bill had really upset her. She was praying to God that there was a simple explanation. This was probably the worst part, right now. The just not knowing. She knew that if Taylor figured it out before her parents came back, she should probably be the one to tell it to them. Then Taylor could explain it in further detail. But, first they should hear it from her and in private. Wow. This was going to be a mess.
    Closing her eyes, Abbi sunk deeper into the warm water and took another sip of wine. At least, she had got to meet Taylor out of this. She found herself